Heart of the Betrayer
by Shadow Wolf22
Summary: What does anyone really know about the machine forces, what if they are more than skin deep


Just a random idea I got after seeing the Animatrix warning: I do not own the Matrix, just the characters of this fic, well except The Architect.  
  
Music broke the perpetual silence that hovered over the charred landscape and blackened sky, a music that hadn't been heard in centuries, which revealed more about the player than he would have liked. Still, he knew that no one would recognize the song and more so he didn't really care. In fact he played more loudly than he had moments ago and now refocused his playing toward the heavens, as if serenading some unseen deity. Then it seemed as if the deity was not quite so unseen, because the player could have sworn he saw two cobalt blue eyes appear, only to disappear again in the sky above. The player smiled at this, a rarity from him, and continued his playing.  
  
Quickly and nimbly his fingers danced along the keys of the silver flute, reviving the forgotten, and as it tended to do bringing forth what should have long ago been forgotten. But the player would not forget, could not, because despite what he was and how long ago she had died he would never forget her, or her song. That was why he came here time after time, to think the thoughts that were forbidden, to truly love when he should not be able to, and to hate those he could not fight against. The whole thing made him crazy and as he got to his feet , putting the flute down on the ground beside him, he let a loud roar escape his throat.  
  
"Why?" he asked the darkness, emitting the words can't I end it? for the benefit of any who could be listening. The darkness however remained silent, which only managed to infuriate him farther.  
  
"Damn You!!" he roared, cursing everyone responsible for his current existence.  
  
He cursed each and everyone of them; the Architect, the Source, those who renewed his body, and even the humans as ridiculous as that was. Because how could he blame them? They hadn't been the ones who downloaded his program into a positronic brain, or the ones whom implanted that computerized brain into the genetically engineered shell he currently inhabited, no that had been the work of his machine brethren. All the humans had done was trust him, and in that one brief instance, loved him. Yes he had loved her, he knew the answer to the question before had asked it to himself, and yes again he knew it shouldn't be possible for him to feel any emotion, but somewhere deep inside he knew it was true. He had loved her, and then according to his program he had betrayed her. Not just her, but all of Zion. Then in the past five hundred years he had repeated the process four times and was now on the verge of the sixth destruction of Zion ready to betray once again.  
  
Not because he wanted to but because his programming was once again activating, multiplying the ever present voices in his head, urging him on, and commanding him.  
  
Destroy their leaders.Disable their weapons .Kill all that you can.Kill the sheep, kill them my wolf within the flock.  
  
The voices grew louder; threatening to over power his own thoughts, to consume him, and to his horror, deep down a part of him wanted to let them.  
  
"No, I won't let you!!" he yelled, futilely denying the voices. Futilely, because he could already feel it coming over him, that power, the power that had allowed him to eviscerate Zion times over and in that one horrifying moment he felt the urge to destroy.  
  
Stepping backward, he threw open the black trench coat he wore to reveal a katana.  
  
"Where is my enemy?" he roared to the heavens, and as if God himself answer, or maybe the Devil, they appeared.  
  
Like a nightmare swarm they rose, creatures that would have perfectly fit into the infernal kingdom, writhing and grasping. Onward they came, rushing him, a swarm of squiddies that outnumbered him literally a hundred to one.  
  
"There is my enemy!!" the player said happily with a maniacal grin that would have looked more appropriate on your average super villain.  
  
Still smiling madly the player charged the swarm, his sword drawn with the blade seeming to darken, its silvery surface blending with the darkness around it until the two could not be distinguished from one another. Slash.Slash.Slash.Destroy  
  
The voices' orders boomed in his mind, and he gladly obeyed.  
  
He jumped forward, slicing the first of sentinels in two and turned just in time to catch two more with a wide arch of the blade. That was three down, now he just had ninety-seven to go and if the first of these were any indication, it would be over rather quickly. The machines though would not be counted out so easily and attacked viciously.  
  
Claws exploded from every direction, sending the player turned berserker, into a furious dash of dodges and slashes.  
  
Slash.Dodge.Dodge.Slash.  
  
The voices urged him on, and bloodlust rewarded him for his deeds. This endless circle took the genetically engineered body to its limit, and just as it seemed that the remaining sentinels would rend that body ascender, the tired berserker's eyes fell on the hilt of his blade.  
  
It was a dragon, a black dragon made of marble, with eyes made of cobalt. Not that there was anything strange about that, but that didn't matter, because it had come from her. Even then, with death closing in, the smell of his own blood thick in the air, with the voices of mayhem shouting in his mind he could feel her. He knew it was , but he could. She was there, somewhere.  
  
"Where are you?" his tired voice whispered to the darkness not expecting an answer, and for a while he received none.  
  
The squiddies showed no regard for the creature's whispered mutterings, attacking with the twelve member remnant of the main force, and that was when the player lost conciseness.  
  
"Raven.hey Rave!"  
  
The player's eyes snapped open as he heard the name he had taken so long ago uttered, and they opened wider when he realized the voice had called him Rave. Only one person had ever called him Rave, and as he sat up he was face to face with her just as she had been six hundred years ago. She was beautiful; short black hair, deep cobalt eyes, and soft kind features greeted his senses. He couldn't have been happier.  
  
"Laura.?" he asked in disbelief.  
  
"Who else would I be?" her voice answered, and as he opened his eyes, they held tears.  
  
"But your." he began, only to be silenced by a finger on his lips.  
  
"Yes I am, but you aren't. Please don't give up!" she whispered sweetly in his ear.  
  
"But I betrayed you?"  
  
"No you didn't, you couldn't help yourself, so please I'm asking you don't let them win by dying here."  
  
"I won't!" he promised silently as their lips met and the whole world seemed to blur.  
  
Where am I he thought as he looked around, not completely realizing something was different, and before he could realize it he spotted them. The sentinels and they were doing., well he wasn't sure what they were doing, but he was sure he didn't like it.  
  
So with the squiddies preoccupied he tried to get to his feet, to no avail, because for some strange reason he couldn't feel his hands. When he looked down he was suddenly hit with a bombshell, he couldn't feel his hands, because he didn't have any. In their place were two white furred paws.  
  
"What the hell" he asked no one, but was surprised as it came out as " Whroo rooo" and a kind of whimpering sound.  
  
Raven nearly jumped back in shock, and did jump to his feet, all four of them and as he got to his feet that was when he felt it. It being another mind, rising to consciousness beside his own, not the voices of mayhem, no a much calmer tone that actually felt right.  
  
Get to your feet.Defeat our enemies.Protect our friends.  
  
Like with the mayhem voices, he obeyed, but this time because he agreed, not because he was forced.  
  
Raven couldn't see himself, but if could have he would have no doubt been impressed, because as a wolf he was a specimen. Lean, strong, at least double the size of the average wolf, and what would allow him to defeat any animal on the planet, brilliant. But he could not see these things, so as he entered battle it was with hesitation and doubt.  
  
"HoooWoooo!" Raven howled forth a battle cry, causing all twelve squiddies to turn an analytical lens toward the strange beast that was apparently challenging them.  
  
As fate would have it was their hesitation, that allowed the white wolf to attack and decimate three of them with impossibly strong jaws and teeth. With those three fallen, the wolf quickly realized its own lethal potential.  
  
Charging, the creature once again brought those metal crushing jaw down upon a tentacle of a sentinel, tearing and spilling the servo fluid of the mechanical creature(like blood in a human).  
  
Seeing this the, remaining sentinels regrouped and attacked, launching a flurry of claws and lasers at their lupine tormentor. The wolf though was undaunted as it dodged away nimbly, then time itself seemed to stop, frozen , everything stuck in its place, and only the wolf seemed free to move. If he could have, Raven would have laughed, because what he was doing was impossible, reaching this level of speed without focusing one's mind was ludicrous, but then who was he to say what was possible, all things considered.  
  
Like lightening, the wolf struck and when he finished, nothing was left, well of the sentinel, but as he wondered back to the spot where his battle as the wolf began he could have sworn he had seen something on the ground.  
  
He smelt it, before he saw it, the smell of blood and burned flesh was unmistakable , but all the while he couldn't help but feel a certain familiarity about the scent still unrecognizable with all the scents on the air. Then he saw it, laying flat on the ground, singed and lifeless. At first he tried to deny it as his imagination, but the black trench coat and katana spoke volumes.  
  
"HoarrrrrooooooW!" the wolf howled, grief, anger, and confusion all menced into one sound.  
  
It can't be possible! Hey who's playing a joke? What the he..? all these things he wanted to yell and more, to make some semblance of order out of what had happened, but no answers were forth coming.  
  
Don't be afraid.You have died to be reborn.You are now a free mind.Focus to retrieve your form?  
  
The new voice in his head said all these things, words of comfort and advise, it was then that Raven realized that he was truly changed and at that realization he found himself standing on two legs.  
  
Looking up toward the heavens, a wide grin caught in the man's features , and he whispered just audibly "Thank you!" then said loudly "Operator, log me out now!"  
  
Raven gasped as his eyes snapped open . All around him various techkies buzzed about, men, women, young, and old, all checking his vitals, and just a few watching the code in astonishment. Then one of the youngest, a woman, by the name of Blaze came over and pulled out his jack. Raven had seen her quite often when he came to log into the surface program when he kneed to think without the Source being able to hear, so she regarded him familiarly when she said  
  
"Gav are you alright?" He smiled at her, fondly remembering another woman that used a contraction of a name he had chosen, as she now did with Gavin. Then he remembered something else about her, and took on a different smile.  
  
"I'm fine Blaze," He answered her after a moment "but can I ask you something?"  
  
"Anything!" she answered seriously.  
  
"Do you like Chinese, because I've got this great cookbook and the?" he said, suddenly clamoring up at the look of astonishment on the young girl was giving him with her cobalt blue eyes.  
  
"Are you asking me out?" she asked stupidly, only to start talking again before he could respond.  
  
"Sure if they say its ok, for you to leave I mean, because you know something happened to you?" she muttered nearly incoherently and turned a questioning gaze toward the other techkies.  
  
They however were of little help as they all wore the exact same expression Blaze had moments ago, and continued to wear it as Raven/Gavin took Blaze by the hand, disappearing into the bright lights of Zion.  
  
There is nothing as beautiful as a free mind...  
  
The Architect, sat quietly in the room in which he had met with Neo, reading intently over the computer screen before him.  
  
It looked as if all the preparations for destroying Zion were right on schedule, except, no it couldn't be? he thought to himself as he saw the words Betrayer Offline. This would make the takeover of Zion a little more interesting.  
  
After all only having three of his four Betrayers would make Zion's destruction far less efficient, but that wouldn't slow them down much, and more so when he created the Betrayers he had assumed that eventually the animal instincts would over come the computer conciseness. That was the problem with using animal DNA in the genetically engineered bodies. The animal DNA strengthened the human body to an astonishing level and in some cases mutated, to even give betrayers the ability to shift forms into the beastual counter parts(a side affect really), but a welcome one that secured the Betrayers as perfect assassins. They were his wolves in sheep's clothing and he didn't fail to note the irony in the fact that Betrayer 01 had been created by usage of lupine DNA. Still 01 or no 01, the program would continue running smoothly, and safe in that knowledge the Architect dismissed his rogue Betrayer as a damaged program. 


End file.
